Archive for the ‘Batto Trucking’ tag

Not like I’ve gotten anything done on the Crosley project lately, but I get enough people asking me what I plan to do with it, so I thought I’d make it a little clearer. As it turns out, Mike Talcott understood exactly what I want to do, and sent some pictures from this past weekend’s Billetproof show in Antioch, California, that’ll help me essplain.

Funny enough, I haven’t seen pics of this car yet, so I don’t know a thing about it. But the idea hasn’t come out of thin air. Back in the 1960s or so, the Batto Trucking company capaigned a 1947 Crosley in drag racing. To make room for the engine, the builders stuck the front axle way out in front of the car’s grille. I believe it was the original family that recently restored the car, and it now runs in nostalgia racing circles across the country.

I’d known about it for a while, but never thought of it until seeing an interesting Crosley station wagon somewheres on the Internet:

As Wayne and Garth would say, “Schwiiinnggg!!!” A street version of the Batto Trucking Crosley, with the front end sticking way out and those unfendered rear tires. I spoke with the guy who took these pictures (somewhere out in CA – same car maybe?), but he had no info on the owner.

I’ve found a few other pictures of Crosley-based hot rods, but other than the “Cool Hand Luke” car that shows up at the HAMB drags, none of them follow the Batto Trucking profile.

For the longest time, I pondered about the body to put on the Model A chassis I’ve been piecing together. Because I love old-time modifieds, I wanted to narrow and shorten an open Ford body and ape the Sakai-Campbell modified, but all I could come up with on my budget was a Model A cowl. I thought about scratch-building my own boattail racer body out of aluminum, but I’ve hardly shaped a panel before, and I didn’t think a full body would be the best way to learn. The Crosrod idea came along at just the right time, and Ted and Ed came through with just the right body.

So now I have the Model A chassis, the open-drive 1948 Ford pickup rear axle, the 1940 Ford front axle and the 1947 Crosley body sitting in a pile in my garage, waiting for me to finish the HMX. Haven’t finalized an engine/transmission yet, though I have a few options. And a few ideas… And now I have Mike’s photos to thoroughly study.

UPDATE: Mike provided a few more photos of the recent Crosrod, along with a shot of his car next to the Batto Trucking Crosley, which he said his father-in-law races against in Nostalgia Eliminator.